Fine Without You
by J-chan the Maniacal
Summary: Do things ever go well in a zombie apocalypse? Probably not, in Ms. Murphy's opinion, but she's willing to be optimistic. Especially where DeMora's concerned.
1. Smoke

*sighs* I'm stuck in a John Leguizamo mood. I could blame "Moulin Rouge", because that _totally_ started this mess, but I didn't _have_ to pop "Land of the Dead" into the DVD player, now did I? Now I've got the image of Cholo doing shirtless chin-ups in Dead Reckoning burned into my skull, and the only logical way to vent this fangirl obsession is to spend a few days typing away like a gal possessed at my laptop, neglecting sleep and the persistent stares of my cat, who has rediscovered the joys of playing with ribbon and has spent the last several days sitting at my feet, meowing at me pitifully until I inevitably crack and spend all of my time playing with him. (Sooo... tired... of playing... ribbon... *dies at four in the morning with the cat sitting on her, pawing at her face, ribbon clutched in his teeth*)

Sooo... yeah. This is my first foray into "Land of the Dead" fanfiction. I tried to keep everyone in character, but I don't really know if I was successful or not. *self-conscious author blushes and hides under a rock* FYI, this takes place mostly before the events of the movie, with the very last part (which I debated with myself about including, but decided to leave it in on principle) placed somewhere around the end of the film, after the fight with Kaufman in the garage.

WARNINGS (seriously): Too many cuss words, a little violence, sexy-time in later chapters.

Blah blah, I don't own "Land of the Dead", George A. Romero does, and he's awesome. I can only hope that he doesn't send legions of zombies after me for screwing around with his characters. XD I only own Ophelia "Spider-Baby" Murphy, and the troubles of her past (though not her nickname). So there.

CUE RANDOM ZOMBIE FOOTAGE AND FADE-IN EFFECT!

X-o-X

She wasn't "cute", though people sometimes called her that at first glance. She favored leather, straps and buckles, materials thick enough to keep out the chill and offer protection when things got serious. Better safe than sorry, in her opinion. Showing skin was only useful when you wanted to fuck. Today, sex was the last thing on her mind.

Her face was pretty enough, or so they told her, youthful. She didn't look her age unless you got up close to study her features. So far, very few of those who had tried to get that close had come away from the encounter without receiving, at the least, a black eye. She was twenty-three or twenty-four; she'd lost track of the passage of time a while ago, though she still tried to recall the exact date once in a blue moon. Usually when she was drunk and feeling surly. She had decent curves, though she was relatively slim. Average height. Nothing remarkable.

Except for her eyes. Most people assumed they were blue at a distance, but they were actually a piercing, misty shade of grayish green. The intensity of her stare made it difficult for anyone to maintain eye contact with her for very long.

Nobody ever expected her to be able to hold her own in a fight. She liked it that way. It meant that the occasional thugs who would try something with her never saw the blow coming until the blow had connected with their temple and they lay sprawled out on the ground, dazed and bloodied. The same went for the pimps who tried to "recruit" her. Sometimes they would be too stubborn to learn from a beating. Then the only thing for it was to feed them a bullet.

She had fought tooth and nail for a place on one of the scavenger teams. Anything to get away from the city for a few hours. She couldn't stand the hypocrisy of that place anymore. It was supposed to be a haven, not a trash can for the bourgeois assholes living up in their ivory tower.

She liked Riley. He didn't lie. He wasn't a bastard. And above all else, he actually managed to act like a decent human being.

She liked Charlie, too. The guy was a sweetheart and a damn good shot with a rifle.

The rest of the crew, though? She could take 'em or leave 'em. Some were nice enough, but others were just out for blood. It was one thing to take satisfaction from your job putting down a few zombies in the line of duty, but to go out of your way to waste ammunition on the ones that weren't even paying attention to you was just plain mean.

Then there were the guys who were running errands for Kaufman... She hated people who allowed themselves to be used like that.

X-o-X

It was the first time they were forced to interact with one another. As soon as DeMora laid eyes on the kid, he knew he didn't like her. He'd heard a few stories before she managed to land a spot on the team. The colorful nicknames she had accumulated over the past year weren't flattering. Ice-Queen. Girl Scout. Hard-Ass. Psycho-Bitch... Oh yeah, she was a natural at making friends. She even had fans on the Green. Last time anyone had checked, the guards up there had a betting pool going as to how long it would be before someone slit her throat and dumped her over the fence.

The name she'd taken for herself after the world "ended" was "Spider-Baby". Nobody knew why. Maybe she just liked the sound of it.

"I'm not a babysitter, Riley."

Denbo had just given him that exasperated-yet-annoyingly-patient stare of his. "She's going with you. End of story."

During this conversation, the girl had stood leaning against Dead Reckoning, screwing around with an old MP3 player she'd salvaged from the back pocket of some poor dead bastard at the start of the night. She looked like a teenager in the too-big leather jacket, zipped tightly shut up to her collarbone, and her ripped jeans. Her hair was relatively short and pulled back with several tiny, plastic hair bands so that it stuck out at odd angles. And it was dyed an obnoxious shade of turquoise. Where the hell had she managed to find _that_ color?

Her Army surplus boots came stomping across the pavement at a gesture from Riley. She chucked her broken toy over her shoulder and looked expectantly at him.

"Murphy, you'll be riding with Cholo tonight, got it?"

She looked DeMora over, head to foot. Her blank expression held a singular note of contempt. "Great. I'll try to contain my boundless joy." Seemed she wasn't thrilled with the idea either. Unlike Cholo, however, she didn't question simple orders. She looked him dead in the eyes. "You touch me and it's not a life-threatening situation, I'll punch you in the dick."

"Yeah, yeah, don't flatter yourself. If we were the last two people living on Earth, I'd probably take one of the stenches over you." Cholo climbed onto his motorcycle and revved the engine. "You coming?"

X-o-X

They tore through the stores in record time. The last of the essentials was packed onto the truck and ready to roll. The only thing left was to make a quick stop at a tobacco shop they'd passed on their way into the shopping center. If he could just get the girl scout to ride back with the truck...

She gave him a stony glare when he asked her to get off the bike. "Riley said I'm with you." She said it flatly, leaving no room for discussion. He started to understand why people didn't like her.

"Look, I've got a few errands of my own that don't involve you or Riley, so I'd appreciate it if you'd fuck off," he kept his tone civil, even though it was clear his sentiments were anything but.

"Fuck you," Spider-Baby said coolly, tightening her grip around his waist. "If you're worried about me chewing your ass out over smokes, don't." What, was she psychic, too? "If it helps, I've been dying to get my hands on a pack of cigarettes that hasn't changed hands thirty-eight fucking times before it reaches me. Those cutthroats back home charge way too much for them anyway."

Cholo narrowed his eyes at her, unsure what to make of this development. Then he sighed and shook his head, casting one more glance at her before they sped off towards the shop. "Have it your way..."

X-o-X

Spider-Baby pretty much ignored DeMora and his cohorts after they had cleared the place of walkers and set about clearing the shelves. She focused on keeping her eyes and ears open and shoving as much loot into her already-heavy backpack as she could (she'd filched a few Coca-Colas and some chocolate bars from one of the convenience stores earlier, being nearly as hard-up for those as she was for nicotene). Once she was certain she had enough to keep her supplied for at least a couple of weeks, she turned and went to the counter, hoisting herself up onto it while she waited for the others to finish.

As much as she loved being out of the city, she _hated_ being in unfamiliar territory. Too much could go wrong in places like this. There were too many variables to consider, people to watch, dangers to listen for...

She glanced back and spotted an unopened bottle of brandy half-hidden on a shelf below the register. _Sweet_. She stuffed it into her backpack before any of the guys could spot it. Then she took the .44 Magnum she found just above the liquor's former hiding place.

X-o-X

The girl was on high-alert as they exited the shop. She thought she heard something rustling about in the patch of bushes behind the building, but she couldn't be sure.

Then one of the dumbasses decided he had to take a leak right then, and in true dumbass fashion, he ambled over to that exact spot to do it. _Fucking moron_.

... _There... _Now she was certain she'd heard it. Without making a sound, she drew the Magnum and double checked to make sure it was fully loaded.

The zombie that came groaning out from the bushes to make a grab for the pissing dumbass, she nailed with a single shot between it's eyes. The two that had popped up from around the other side of the building and made for Foxy, none of them had noticed until they were right on top of them.

One of them managed to stagger forward and knock Fox to the ground, pinning him. The other didn't make it close enough, caught with one of DeMora's bolts. But by the time they got its friend off of Foxy, another two had appeared. The guy over by the bushes was caught from behind and dragged back into the foliage. His screams didn't last long, and they were followed by a horrific gurgling.

Foxy was on his bike and roaring out of there in a flash. "Cholo, man, come on!"

There was a shuffling behind DeMora. He didn't swing around in time to stop the monster from attacking.

Spider-Baby did.

The whole thing took less than a second to play out. She'd heard the footsteps and caught the look of horror on Fox's face just as she'd been turning for the bike. She whirled around, fast as lightning. The next thing Cholo saw was her arm lifted over his half-turned shoulder, the pistol smoking in her grip. The shot was still echoing in his ears when she grabbed his sleeve and shoved him towards the motorcycle.

X-o-X


	2. Burn

X-o-X

True to her word, she didn't say a thing to Denbo when they made it back to the city. Even though they got chewed out for taking unnecessary risks, the other team members had a new respect for the quick-as-lightning Spider-Baby. They even invited her to tag along for a few beers.

The rarest of smiles graced her lips, and for one, brief moment, she actually looked like an attractive, normal young woman. "I'd love to, but I've got to get some sleep. Maybe next time, yeah?"

DeMora made his own excuses and followed her. He dodged the foot traffic and caught her a few blocks later. "Hey, listen," he began, walking backwards in front of her, struggling to keep up with her pace, "I know it's just business and all, but you saved my ass back there. I just wanted to say, thanks." He wasn't sure why he was doing this. They all knew the risks when they had taken the job, and they watched each other's backs accordingly. Maybe it was that he'd started off the evening with the same opinion about her as the rest of the fuck-ups around them and wanted to apologize for it. Or maybe it was the fact that he'd seen the contempt and coldness in her eyes all throughout the night and was wondering why she hadn't taken the opportunity and let the stench kill him. _Everyone has a mercenary streak nowadays. Why doesn't she?_

The blue-haired woman stopped abruptly to stare at him. "Don't thank me. It might've been kinder to let the zombie take you."

Cryptic. And infuriating. Suddenly, he was on the defensive. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She sighed wearily. "I know for a fact that you've been doing work for Kaufman on the side."

He stiffened, trying to keep the growl out of his voice. "Big fucking deal. Everybody's got to look out for their own best interests."

She waved off his anger dismissively. "We both got off on the wrong foot tonight. You didn't like me because I look and act like a frigid bitch. I didn't like you because I had you pegged for a low-level goon. Thing is, I was wrong. You're one of those naive bastards who thinks that a man like Kaufman will uphold his end of a bargain. Cholo, guys like him... they'll stab you in the back in a heartbeat." She snapped her fingers for emphasis. "The second he thinks you might become a liability, he'll have one of his other lapdogs gut you and leave your ass in the gutter. Then it'll be you in one of those boxes they dump outside while some younger, dumber punk takes your place. He's a snake. Don't trust him."

DeMora was shocked; not by her warning, but by the fact that she had dropped her guard and was looking at him with honest-to-God sincerity in her eyes. She didn't particularly like him, but she was genuinely worried about him. "Yeah, well..." He tried to go back to playing the tough guy, but it was half-hearted. "What do you know? You don't have plans, you don't have ambitions..."

Spider-Baby huffed, giving him a wry smile. "Fine. Go ahead and play that asshole's game, get yourself killed. See if I care." She shoved past him and continued on her way without so much as a second glance.

X-o-X

The apartment she was staying in was pathetic. She hated the dull, hideous wallpaper. She despised the stained carpets. The kitchen was too small, the living room was too cramped, there was no bedroom, only a dingy mattress on the floor that had been overpriced, covered with a few layers of unwashed sheets and ratty blankets...

But it had one saving grace. A CD player she'd bought off of some scumbag for fifty bucks and a couple of bottles of cheap vodka. She only had a handful of albums that weren't irreparably scratched, but when your choices in music were limited anyway, what did it matter? She picked one at random and inserted the disc, putting it on shuffle. "Burn" by Alkaline Trio. Laughing softly, she wondered if it was ironic or just plain funny that it made her think of DeMora.

She stripped off her clothes, leaving them scattered across the floor. Then she flopped down onto the mattress, falling asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.

Dreams were the only safehaven left to her anymore. She never dreamed about the dead or the bleak world around her. In sleep, she had peace.

X-o-X

They didn't meet again until the next scavenging trip. It went much the same as the last one had. The only difference was that Spider-Baby was the one who asked to make an unscheduled stop. She had glimpsed a bookstore in the distance.

"Didn't figure you were the literary type," DeMora teased, edging around the shelves carefully, watching for any sign of life. Or un-life.

"There's a lot you don't know about me."

There were only a couple of zombies lurking near the storeroom to contend with, then it was clear sailing. She made a beeline for the comic books. This time she'd been prepared; she had remembered to bring the heavy-duty messenger bag she used whenever she went shopping. The girl picked through the comics, sorting out the ones she wanted and stuffing them into the bag. The ones she thought she could sell or give to any kids in her neighborhood, she placed in a plastic shopping bag she'd filched from the front of the store.

With the novels, she was more discerning. He noted that she had a taste for fantasy and horror, then that most of the romance novels she tossed into the bag had lurid, gothic covers. When she reached a small section of adult novels, he couldn't suppress a laugh.

Spider-Baby looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "What?" she asked, oblivious.

"You're looking at erotica. _You_. The cold fish."

She shrugged. "Just because I refuse to whore myself out or fuck every guy I see doesn't mean I don't like sex once in a while. Frigid bitches get lonely too." She motioned towards the front desk. "Could you look and see if they have any Playboys left? I'm always too scared to buy one back home. You never know who's 'used' it before you."

DeMora grinned. The effect it had was to make him look rather boyish. It was almost... cute. He hopped over the counter and started going over the shelves. "Aww, what's the matter? You afraid of a little spunk?"

"Only when I don't know where it came from." She heard him spout off a few excited-sounding phrases in Spanish.

When he returned, he was holding a handful of shrink wrapped dirty magazines. "Jackpot! I'm tempted to take all of 'em. You can get a good price for these on the street, in this kind of condition."

"I'll keep that in mind." She noticed that he had taken a few for himself and tucked them into his jacket. "A little light reading? I'm surprised you can't find a girl, what with your people skills."

"Yeah, laugh it up. You're the one who asked for 'em. And I saw how many of those novels you shoved in your bag while you thought I wasn't looking."

She smirked up at him and grabbed one more off the shelf. "Until I find a man who doesn't sicken me, these'll have to do. What can I say? I'm a sucker for romance." She tossed the book at his face and he barely caught it in time.

X-o-X


	3. Settle for Satin

X-o-X

This time, she went out for drinks with the boys when they offered.

She was aloof at first, a bit shy. But after half a dozen shots of tequila, she had loosened up considerably. At one point, she ended up dancing on the bar, gyrating her hips with perfect rhythm while they hooted and cheered her on. She even dragged Pretty Boy up with her and they concluded the drunken dance with a kiss that made every guy in the bar burst into applause.

None of them could pick her up, though, try as they might. She told them it was nothing personal. She didn't want things to become complicated between herself and her coworkers. Meaningless sex was one thing, but a drunken one-night stand could have any number of unpleasant consequences. Especially with her abrasive personality.

"Ask me again when I'm sober, and we'll see."

Spider-Baby walked part of the way home with Foxy on one arm and Cholo on the other. They were just as drunk as she was, but they were having a much easier time walking, so they agreed to make sure she got home safely. A block from her apartment, she assured them that she was perfectly capable of making it to her place without falling down or being harassed by anyone. Fox departed easily enough, smiling and clapping her on the shoulder once before he turned and staggered off to his own home.

DeMora, however, wouldn't budge. "Let me walk you to the door, at least. I'd feel like a sack of shit if I woke up tomorrow and found out some asshole mugged you a few feet from the entrance..."

She was tempted to argue that any man who was willing to do Kaufman's dirty work shouldn't be able to feel bad about stuff like that, but the fact that he was making a fuss over her safety threw her off balance. After a few minutes of debating the issue with him, she relented. It was the way he was looking at her. The bastard could be downright sympathetic... when he wasn't full of shit.

"Aw, shit..." he grumbled, sobering up a little as they paused on the street corner leading to her building so she could adjust her jacket, which was sliding off of one shoulder.

Spider-Baby tried to follow his line of vision. "What is it?" Her own vision was blurry, but she could just make out a thuggish male profile on the other side of the street, buying a coffee from one of the local street vendors.

"See the big guy in the windbreaker? I owe him money. Not a lot, but the guy's a real ball-buster. If he sees me, it could turn ugly."

She thought about it for a moment and decided on a suitable course of action. She dragged him towards the door of her apartment building. "Then we just have to make sure he doesn't see you."

"What are you... Oh. Seriously? You're not even gonna charge me admission or anything? I get to see what kind of dump you live in, free of charge?"

She yanked him through the door and down the hall. "Smartass. You take anything, and I'll kill you. Now hurry up..." A short trip up the stairs and they were home free. She fumbled with the keys, but got the door open and ushered him inside without too much fuss.

DeMora took one look around and nodded. "Yep. You live in a complete dump."

Spider-Baby punched him hard on the arm. "Shut the fuck up. It's better than nothing." She threw her jacket haphazardly over the back of a chair. "... Okay, it's shit. But at least it's mine. You can stay here until that guy leaves."

He settled down into a faded recliner and stretched his legs out. "Thanks, baby."

She chose to ignore the fact that the man had just called her "baby", which was usually an offence punishable by death. "I'm going to make some coffee, you want any?"

"Sure." As she disappeared into the ramshackle kitchen, he caught sight of a large tattoo spread across her back, just visible underneath her tank top along the collar and the small of her back. When she returned with two mugs, handing him the first one, he gestured towards her back. "What's with the ink?"

"Huh? Oh, this? I got this a few years ago. I probably ought to get it retouched, but I don't know if I'd trust any of the local guys to do it." Spider-Baby turned around and lifted up her shirt, pulling it over her head and holding it carefully in front of her while she let him study the tattoo.

It was incredible, a real piece of work. An intricate spiderweb wove its way all across the smooth expanse of her back, a single black widow poised along her right shoulderblade, waiting patiently for its prey. The design was deceptively simple, illustrated in mostly black and gray, but there were touches of red and silver here and there that really made it stand out. The lines were perfect, so far as he could tell.

DeMora whistled appreciatively. "That explains the name." His gaze fell on an ugly scar partially hidden under the black and red abdomen of the spider. "What's this?" He brushed his fingers across the rough scar tissue. It looked like it had been caused by a large blade of some kind, within the last few years.

She hesitated, tilting her head back over her shoulder. "That's... nothing. It's ancient history. A reminder of why I hate people."

"Whatever you say." He shrugged. If she didn't want to share, he wouldn't argue. He didn't like nosy assholes either.

She decided to change the subject. "I don't suppose you've got any tattoos you'd like to share?"

"I might. You wanna see?"

"Hell yeah. If you've got any, let's see 'em."

He shrugged out of his jacket and slipped off his shirt. It was her turn to whistle, although for a different reason. Cholo was a dead ringer for many of the beefcake hunks off the covers of all those dirty books she'd grabbed. She forgot all about the fact that she was merely holding her shirt like a shield and spun around, belatedly bringing one hand up to keep the fabric up over her chest while the other reached out to trace the tattoo on his upper arm. The symbol was gorgeous.

So was the body it was printed on.

It had been months since she'd last had a man in her bed. The guys in town weren't her type. The last one she'd even considered making a pass at was Riley, and she wasn't really sure she wanted to start something with him. Not while he was her superior, anyway.

The booze lingering in her system didn't help this equation. It had been easy to turn down the others at the bar because there had been layers of clothing and a lot of people around to dissuade her from doing anything rash. In private, with his smooth, warm flesh under her fingertips and the tequila still working on her brain, it was a lot harder to ignore her body's urges.

She realized that she was staring a bit _too _much and cautiously lifted her gaze up to his face. All of the mischief had disappeared. He knew exactly what she was thinking. Mostly because he was thinking the same thing.

They hovered right on the edge of just crashing into each other for a good long while before either one of them spoke.

"If you wanna fool around, I'm not gonna say 'no'," he said finally, those chocolate-hued eyes of his raising goosebumps along her skin. She'd thought _her_ eyes were intense.

Spider-Baby nodded slowly, letting her hand drift from his tattoo over to his chest. She suppressed a little whimper at the solid feel of him. "Okay, we need to set a few rules, then. For now, this is about mutual need, yes? It won't interfere with our professional lives. Whether or not this goes from a one-night deal to a casual relationship doesn't matter, but if we end up doing this regularly, then decide to break it off, we'll part on friendly terms. No harm, no foul." She hesitated before adding, "If it turns personal..."

"We'll see what happens." DeMora shortened the gap between them by a few more inches.

_Fuck me sideways_... She could smell him now, and even the tequila couldn't mask the scent of his skin. She pressed her legs together in an effort to ease the ache that was rapidly going from desperate to raging. She licked her lips. "Fair enough. Oh, and Cholo?"

"Mm-hm?" He drew the shirt out of her hand. Whether it was the alcohol that was making him want to throw her down and fuck her senseless or not, he didn't care. He just knew he had to do it. Before one of them had a chance to realize what a terrible idea this was.

"If you want to use my real name, it's Ophelia."

X-o-X


	4. Fall Victim

X-o-X

As soon as they'd struggled out of what was left of their clothes, he immediately scooped her up and threw her onto the mattress. She landed with a surprised "Oh!" that came out a bit squeaky, but when he joined her, she went from girlish to ravenous in no time at all. She grabbed a fistful of his spiky hair and yanked him down for a deep kiss. He hadn't noticed until that moment that her tongue was pierced.

They broke for air and he went for her throat. DeMora peppered her neck and shoulders with hard love-bites, every single one of them tearing a satisfied gasp from the young woman, her fingers tightening their grip on his hair and relaxing as he worked from one side of her neck to the other.

Marks were good. She liked it when a lover would leave a pleasant reminder of their time together. They made it easier to deal with the nights when everything sucked and it was obvious that they were all going to die and come back as walking corpses.

When he buried himself inside her, she asked him to look at her. He did it without hesitation. He pounded away at her, setting a rhythm that made her entire body light up as if he'd set her ablaze. Nobody had ever maintained eye contact with her for longer than a few seconds, but Cholo never looked away. Not until she'd screamed his name and collapsed into a shuddering heap. Not until he'd been forced to pull out of her quivering body and come onto the pale flesh of her stomach. It put the whole experience on a completely different level.

Staring up at the ceiling, one leg tangled carelessly around his, his arm around her shoulder, she reached back and located her discarded jeans. She retrieved a crinkled pack of cigarettes from a pocket and fished one out. She found her lighter on the floor and lit the cigarette before tossing the lighter back down. She took a puff then offered it to DeMora.

He took a drag just as she wrapped an arm around his waist. He glanced down at her. "Are you still gonna be a pain in the ass after all this?"

She shrugged. "Probably. But if you drop by for a booty call once in a while, my attitude might start to improve."

Oh well, it was worth a shot. He handed the cigarette back. "... Ophelia, huh?"

"Yep."

"That's a pretty name..."

They still didn't really _like_ each other... but it was a start.

X-o-X

Aside from that first time, Cholo rarely spent the night. He would never tell her exactly what it was that he did for Kaufman, but she knew from the way he carried himself, the hollow tone of his voice on the days when he had visited the asshole. If he was worried that she might hate him for it, there was no need. She'd explained in the beginning that she understood the situation. Perhaps even better than he did.

She'd had experience with men like Kaufman. They shouldn't even be called men. In a world full of the undead, they were the _real _monsters. At least the zombies were honest about what they were. These men would peel the meat off your bones while you were watching, and all the while tell you that they were trying to help you.

Ophelia "Spider-Baby" Murphy had merely hated Kaufman. Now, she loathed him more than any other human being on the planet. The mess with DeMora was the straw that broke the camel's back.

X-o-X

"Do you still want to know?"

DeMora didn't even look up. "What?"

"You asked about my scar a while back. Do you still want to know how I got it?"

They had been loading supplies onto the truck for the better part of ten minutes, and she hadn't said more than a word all night. He'd wondered why she had looked so pensive.

He looked up at her and nodded, handing off the box he'd been carrying. He gave her his full attention, folding his arms. "Yeah, I'll bite. So how'd you get it?"

Spider-Baby took a breath. "I was twenty, living in a small community out west of here. It wasn't a great place, but it was safer than wandering around, so I stayed. Town was run by a gang of ex-cons who'd been raiding all of the surrounding areas, killing anybody who didn't like their rules. They had zero brains between them, but a lot of firepower. All except for the guy in charge, Leo. He had charisma; the kind of sadistic freak everyone seems to flock to whenever law and order go out the window and you're left with jack shit in terms of civilization."

She'd never told anyone the story. She hoped it wouldn't change DeMora's opinion of her. "They found out I was kind of a gun nut and offered me a job. At first, I thought I'd decline, but the perks they were offering would've made life a whole hell of a lot better. In the end, I ignored my instincts and took the job." She shoved her hands into her coat pockets. "The work wasn't 'kosher', but I went along with it anyway. Mostly it was pumping folks for info, collecting bribes, beating up the guys who didn't want to pay up, stuff like that.

"Then they told me I had to kill my neighbor." Her eyes went hard. "I knew Zion. He was a Bible-thumping Baptist from Georgia, an extreme right-winger. He was hard to get along with sometimes, but he was a good man. I was raised conservative, so he never gave me any trouble, at least. They wanted him dead because he'd popped one of their boys when he tried to loot the old man's garage."

DeMora's brows furrowed. "What'd you do?"

"I told Leo to go fuck himself. I don't kill good people, Cholo. Not unless they draw first blood. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not the kind of girl who can murder a person in cold-blood."

He shook his head. "Bad move, I'm guessing."

She laughed bitterly. "You ain't kidding. Leo had his boys beat the shit out of me... and worse. By the time Leo's turn came, I had stopped struggling. I was broken and bloody. If anyone had seen me, I bet they'd have taken me for a walker. I let him have his fun, focused all of my attention on the nasty things I was going to do to every single one of them- _especially _Leo- when I got out of there. Thing was, I realized after he'd finished that they had no intention of letting me walk out."

Spider-Baby tilted her chin back towards her shoulder. "Son of a bitch put a machete through my back while I was lying there, naked, on the floor. They dumped me in a ditch on the outskirts of town, just outside the fences. They thought I was dead already, and even if I wasn't, as soon as the stenches caught my scent, I was done for. Only problem with that plan was, they didn't know how pissed off I was.

"There has to be a God, because I never would've made it back to the fence without His help. I managed to find a gap behind one of my neighbors' yards and dug my way in. I crawled up to their back door and knocked a few times. Mrs. Andriano nearly had a heartattack when she saw me. She was a nurse before everything started, so she patched me up as best she could, gave me a change of clothes. She begged me to stay for a while, told me if I didn't rest, I was going to die. I thanked her, then stumbled as carefully as I could back to my house. They'd wrecked the place, of course, but they didn't know where I kept my backup guns. I armed myself and went to check on Zion.

"His place looked even worse than mine did. I found the old man staked out in the front yard. They'd nailed him to a cross and set him on fire. He was still going when I..." She had to take a moment to compose herself before she continued. "I knew the guard rotations pretty well after working for them for so long. I waited until I had an opening and made it into their 'clubhouse' before anyone even knew I was there."

She smiled viciously. "Dumbasses were using the old police HQ, sleeping in the cells. I found a nice, quiet storage closet and waited until I knew most of them would be asleep. The cells had electronic locks. I found the control and shut the fuckers in. Leo lived exclusively in the main office. I caught him while he was jerking off in bed.

"The look on his face was priceless. I put two in his balls and emptied the clip into his face. Went to the garage and found a few spare gas cans, decided to torch the place. Then I got the fuck out of there, took one of my neighbors' cars, and never looked back."

It was difficult to imagine the youthful-looking punk having gone through all of that, but there was no doubt that she was telling the truth. That was why her eyes were hard. It was why she came off as a frigid bitch sometimes.

They'd all gone through hell. The world was, itself, hellish. But she was a survivor. One of the few _true_ survivors.

DeMora did something completely unexpected. He hugged her. It wasn't a bear hug or anything, and it was awkward and brief, but it was enough to make her eyes widen in surprise. When he pulled away, he mussed her hair affectionately. "Kid, you've got to be the toughest chick I've ever seen. Remind me never to piss you off again."

Spider-Baby shoved his hand away as a reflex, then smiled up at him sheepishly. "Yeah, well, um... Just don't go blabbing that story to everybody else, okay? It's a need-to-know type of thing. People tend to treat me like a wounded puppy if they know... y'know..."

"Hey, my lips are sealed. But, out of curiousity, why'd you tell me? I mean, I know we're fuck-buddies and all, but... that's heavy shit."

Honestly, she wasn't sure why she had wanted to share her story with Cholo. It had just felt... right for him to know the whole story. Plus, it illustrated an important point. "I figured you deserved to know what kind of psychopath you're sleeping with. And there's a valuable lesson in that story."

"What's that?"

"If you're working for heartless monsters, you should be prepared for the moment when they decide to fuck you over."

X-o-X


	5. Your Neck

X-o-X

"I don't like it, it's too risky." Riley took the binoculars when DeMora handed them back to him. They had found a vast shopping mall in a nearby town. The signs at the entrances to the parking lot advertised for one of the best-stocked pharmacies in the area, as well as a large grocery store, a small gas station, and several smaller clothing boutiques and the like.

The problem was that the lot itself was stocked with enough cars to make locating threats difficult, and the layout of the stores was such that there were too many blind corners and places where walkers could hide. Even if the pharmacy turned out to be a gold mine, he wasn't sure that it was worth risking everyone's lives.

Spider-Baby took a drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke upwards to avoid getting it in Charlie's face as he stood watch over Riley beside her. She shifted her weight onto one foot. "If we're using fireworks, the lot shouldn't be a problem. The real trouble's in clearing the stores. Especially the grocer's there. Lots of shelves means lots of opportunities for fate to bitch-slap us."

"Think of the payout, though. This place looks like it hasn't been touched in years. If even half of the stock's still in there, it'd be worth the trouble," Cholo offered.

"Shit, the pharmacy alone's worth checking out." She didn't bother to add that reliable condoms and/or birth control pills would make her life downright heavenly. Not that she didn't like ending every marathon session with DeMora covered in sweat and semen, but it would be nice to have him come _inside_ her at least once.

Riley mulled it over for a while and sighed. "Alright, we'll go in, but let's keep things brief. I don't want to spend one more minute in there than we have to." He spent the next few minutes splitting people up into teams.

Before she climbed onto the back of DeMora's bike, Spider-Baby whispered something to Mouse. The kid grinned at her and she scowled at him, threatening death if he "made a big deal out of it".

"What'd you ask him to do?" Cholo asked, looking at her over his shoulder.

She leaned up to his ear and whispered, "I asked him to pick up a few personal items at the drug store. With any luck, you and I will be going ten rounds tonight and I won't have to worry about clean-up."

As he watched the others head down the hill, towards the parking lot, fireworks bursting into life above them, Riley couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

Intuitively picking up on the same vibe, Charlie looked at him nervously. "I got a bad feeling about this, Riley."

"Me too, Charlie. Me too..."

X-o-X

Working in pairs, four teams made their way through the grocery store. The lot outside had been full of stenches, but inside the store was almost worse. It was no wonder the place hadn't been picked clean.

One of the men had the bright idea to make it into a game. The one with the highest headcount got first dibs on any items they wanted.

Within fifteen minutes, the store was deemed clear and Spider-Baby was shoveling candy bars into her backpack. Technically, Cholo had beaten her by one measley point, but since they had both fired at the same time when they found the last zombie and since she was still holding a gun and had threatened bodily harm if he got between her and the chocolate, he didn't argue.

After thinking about it for a moment, though, she had an idea. "Hey, Cholo."

He stopped rifling through the cigarettes in the case behind her. "What's on your mind, baby?"

"Give you a king size Hershey bar if you'll meet me in the bathroom for a quickie."

Bribing him with chocolate. That was low, even for her. He looked around to see if anyone had overheard that little offer, then shot her a dirty look. "You're evil. Yeah, I'll do it. Men's or women's?"

"Like I give a shit which one we use! Just get your ass in there before I change my mind. Men's, I guess..."

X-o-X

One zombie in the bathroom. _Bastard_. DeMora put it out of their misery and kicked it into one of the stalls before he went back and locked the main door. When he hoisted her up onto the counter, she was giggling uncontrollably. "What're you laughing at?" he demanded.

"I just realized, I talked you into whoring yourself out for chocolate." She fell back, laughing so hard that tears were welling up in her eyes.

He unzipped her pants and yanked them down roughly, scowling at her in mock annoyance as he opened his fly. "Bitch."

"Chocolate-whore," she laughed. She winced as he thrust in hard, hilting inside her in one move. She wrapped her arms around his neck, nuzzling her nose against his, her giggling fading into soft moans. "Mhn... Harder..."

He obliged her, pulling her a little closer to the edge. That fraction of an inch meant a slight change in angle. The new angle allowed him to slam into her body with enough force to shake the mirror behind her. She let out a harsh moan, her legs jerking in response. His lips closed on hers, swallowing down every sound she made.

It didn't take long for her climax to build, but it remained, almost tauntingly, just out of reach. He broke the kiss, groaning against her neck. _Fuck_... He was closer to it than she was. If he pulled out now...

She threw her legs around his waist and pinned him to her body. He grunted in protest, his gloved fingers digging into her ass.

"Ophelia, I'm about... to come..."

"Don't you dare pull out," she hissed, feeling herself slip closer to release. "Just a little... more..."

There was no stopping once it hit. He buried his face in her collar, biting down on her neck as the climax wracked through him.

"F-FUCK!" she yelped. The sudden rush of pain and the feel of him spilling into her was the equivalent of being hit with lightning. It set her off instantly, and when the storm subsided, she was left a dazed, whimpering mess. Even more gratifying was that DeMora was in the same boat. It took them both several minutes to catch their breath.

"Nh... Marry me, you magnificent bastard..."

He barked out a laugh. "We'd kill each other if we had to spend more than a day together..." He slapped her thigh. "You can let go any time now, baby..."

She reluctantly willed her legs to work and released her hold on him. She leaned back, resting against the wall, and watched him tuck himself back into his pants. He retrieved her jeans from the floor and handed them back to her. It took a bit of work, but she managed to slide off of the counter, onto her wobbly legs, and got the jeans back on.

He started towards the door. She caught his sleeve, shoved him back against the wall, and kissed him. When she pulled away, he slipped up and let out a small, disappointed groan. Proof that he wasn't the cool customer he thought he was.

DeMora slammed a fist into the door. Judging by the sound of hurried footsteps in retreat, somebody had been listening in. He smirked down at Spider-Baby. "Guess we had an audience."

She unlocked the door and threw it open, hands set proudly on her hips. Loudly, she said, "Hope you fellas enjoyed the show. Wish you'd said something sooner, we might've opened the door." She made her way liesurely to the front of the store.

She wasn't being as careful as she should have been. She never even saw the dead man coming.

X-o-X


	6. Fine Without You

X-o-X

Spider-Baby didn't realize she'd been hit until the teeth were sinking into her earlobe. She howled in pain as the tissue was severed, the bite ripping out one of the small hoops in her cartilage as well. The girl elbowed the zombie off of her and kicked off, trying to put some distance between her and the monster.

The bolt caught it in the eye. It slumped forward onto the floor, the partially-chewed fragment of Ophelia's ear falling out of it's mouth when it collided with the hard surface. DeMora let off a string of frantic curses in his mother's tongue and rushed to her. When he saw the damage, he paled visibly. "Fuck..."

There were few words that could adequately express her own feelings in that moment. The f-bomb was definitely in the top three. She felt the tears stinging her eyes. "Fuck," she agreed.

Still swearing, he pulled her into his arms, laying his cheek alongside her head.

What do you say to someone who's been bitten? How do you offer them comfort? The answer, of course, is that there's not one Goddamn thing that you can say that will make them feel better. All you can do is tell them that they're going to die, and either they'll come to terms with it or they won't.

He didn't have to say shit. She knew it was over. Life, as usual, had given her a reason to be happy, and then fucked her over royally. For the first time since the world had ended, she cried. She kept one hand clasped over her wounded ear to stem the bloodflow and fisted the other in Cholo's jacket, and she screamed her frustration into the leather. She wept until her eyes were red and her throat ached.

DeMora hated himself as soon as the words formed in his head, but he had to ask, even if it killed him. "Do you... Do you want me to..." He couldn't finish the sentence. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bring himself to say it. _Do you want me to kill you?_

It was an age before she answered. She sighed, her voice caught somewhere between a bitter laugh and a wail, "I don't know..." She huffed into his chest. "I didn't think I would live long anyway, but this just... God, this just blows. I don't wanna eat people..."

He noticed the guys were starting to crowd around them, looking at him expectantly. _They're waiting for me to do it._ People died; it was a fact of life. Everyone had put down someone they cared about. Friends, family, neighbors... lovers... After a while, you just accepted it. Call it fate. Call it bad luck. By any name, it was bullshit.

At what point had he stopped feeling?

She felt him shift, his hand going between them to reach under his jacket, to retrieve his pistol. It was like being dunked into ice water. Her mind reached a whole new level of clarity. She felt numb.

He hesitated, the pistol gripped firmly in one hand, the other still wrapped around her shoulder, his free hand cradling her head. He took a steadying breath, steeled himself. "Just say the word, and I'll do it. If you say no, you can walk away, wait it out."

Hoarsely, she asked, "What do _you_ want?"

He smiled sadly against her hair. "I want you to be fine and for us to spend the next thirty years screwing each other's brains out." She laughed, choking back a sob. "But that's not gonna happen, and we both know it. This is the end of the line. You need to make a decision, because these guys are starting to get antsy..."

Spider-Baby pulled back to look up at DeMora. Her eyes were set; she'd made the call. "I want to say goodbye to Riley. He's been good to me. Charlie, too. And the rest of the crew."

He nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks with one gloved hand. "Alright. C'mon..."

She imagined, as he took her out of the store, his arm still locked around her, that this was how it must feel for a condemned prisoner to be escorted to their execution.

X-o-X

Charlie saw the blood first. He stared at her in disbelief as they approached, shaking his head slowly. "No, no... Aw, hell... Riley, look..."

Riley looked like someone had slapped him. He ran to her side, prying her hand away from the wound. There was no need to hold it anymore; the blood had congealed by now. He looked from her to Cholo. "What happened?"

"One of the fuckers came from out of nowhere, nailed her while we were on our way out." If the other two looked distraught, DeMora looked downright miserable. A few weeks ago, she had saved him from almost the exact same situation. He was unable to return the favor. He'd failed to protect her when she needed him.

Spider-Baby had gone past the point where she cared. She'd accepted that death was about to take her. All that was left was to wrap up the loose ends. She offered Riley a hand. "Riley, it's been a privilege to know you."

He accepted the handshake after a brief pause, nodding. Denbo, more than any other person she'd met, understood that her cool attitude didn't mean that she wasn't a warm person. "... Likewise, Ophelia. I hope... No... Even if I said it, it wouldn't make a difference. I guess I'll just say... goodbye."

She turned to Charlie. He was tearing up. "Don't you start, or I'll start blubbering again..." she admonished him, smiling wistfully. "You're a great guy, Charlie. Don't ever change, okay?" She hugged him fondly.

Spider-Baby poked her head into Dead Reckoning to bid the others farewell. Before she could get back to DeMora, Foxy stopped her to shake her hand.

When she did reach Cholo, she could tell that he felt as numb as she did. "So this is it," he said. "You're really going to do it?" He had taken off his gloves.

She took his hand, trying to make an imprint in her memory of how it felt. He was always so warm... "Yeah," she affirmed at last. "Who knows? Maybe you'll see me again in a couple of months. If you do, feel free to take the shot. I doubt I'll feel a thing." It was a poor attempt to lighten the mood. Neither one of them laughed.

DeMora's dark eyes swept her face, lingering on those cold eyes of hers. He didn't want to look away. "Chances are, we'll all be dead by the end of the month. Hell, I feel like I'm halfway there already."

"Nah," she scoffed, giving him a wry smile. "You have to prove me wrong. Go on, get a place on the Green. Take Kaufman for every penny. I still don't think you can do it, but I'm a dead girl walking, so what do I know?"

There was another moment between them, very similar to the one they'd encountered on the night when they'd first slept together. Before they could spoil it by talking, he kissed her one last time. He tangled his hand in her hair, inhaled her scent, savored the taste of her.

When he pulled away, she took the time to memorize every single detail of his face, right down to the smallest freckle and the subtle lines. He was beautiful. Really, truly, fucking amazingly beautiful.

She was head over heels for this mercenary asshole. No doubt about it.

"Just fyi, I love you."

He smiled, the expression near to bursting with every emotion left in him. Anger at the situation and his inability to protect her. Sorrow at the loss of her life. Elation at hearing her say those three little words that he'd always thought were pointless before... He bumped his forehead against hers. "Goddammit, I love you too."

X-o-X

When she walked away, off into the darkness to die and be reborn, he muttered, trying to reassure himself, "I'll be fine..."

_It's you I'm worried about._..

X-o-X


	7. Epilogue

X-o-X

To the observer, she was just another nameless face, one more dead body in the crowd. If any of them could _think_ like they had in life, you certainly couldn't tell just by looking at them. What drove them was blind instinct, nothing more. There were flashes of insight, every now and again, but these moments of inspiration were random, at best.

The larger one among the group was smart, though. He would figure things out and then teach the others what he'd learned. Like the gun. Once he had a grasp on how to use it, he'd noticed the smaller weapon she had strapped to her hip. It had only taken a nudge for her to remember, however vaguely, how to use it. It wasn't so much a conscious effort to recall as it was physical memory. Her body knew what to do, though its responses to her commands were sluggish at first.

As the days went by, her reaction time improved, slowly but surely. She was still slow, but she was getting sharper.

X-o-X

Ever since they'd entered the city, she'd had a feeling that she should be looking for... something... someone...? Words were unfamiliar in most cases, but there was one that was always lingering on the edge of her consciousness, seemingly staring her right in the face. _Demm... Demo... Demaaa... _Sometimes she would try to articulate the sound, but she could never remember exactly what it was.

But it was there, morning, noon, and night. She might spend an eternity staring off into the distance, looking at nothing in particular while she tried to conjure up an image of the D-word, whatever it might be.

X-o-X

She had broken off from the main force and was wandering aimlessly along the street when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Her head tilted to the side, gaze drifting lazily from the pavement to the entrance of a parking garage where a fire was blazing, full swing... when she saw _it._

She didn't know how or why, but she _knew_ it was him... _De_... _Demo... _

"DeMmmraa..." It didn't come out as clear as it should have, but it did make him look up. She raised her hand towards the bloodied and still-smoking figure.

They circled each other for several minutes before recognition sparked in his eyes. It was hazy for both of them, but they definitely knew one another. Or at least, they had been acquainted in a past life.

If anyone had seen the pair staggering off down the street, they might've thought it was just some couple who'd had too much to drink and were on their way home.

X-o-X

"... I'd kill for you and eat the flesh. Give you the heart and burn the rest. A thousand miles ain't shit to walk if I'm walking to hold you, but I'll be just fine without you..." -Alkaline Trio, "Fine Without You"

X-o-X

So, that's it. When I get an idea stuck in my head, it's hard to shake. That's when this kind of thing happens. . ; *goes back to hiding under her rock*

Anyhoo... BONUS POINTS if you know what movie Ophelia's nickname references! *hint: it's really, really obvious, or should be, provided you watch old cult movies* (*points at self* This is a woman who watches too much TCM Underground.)


End file.
